September 23, 1871 The train cuts through Missouri like a blade, and still the landscape refuses to bleed. The trees stand too still. The...

Journal Entry – September 21, 1871 The air hangs thick with the scent of wagon grease, smears of black oil mingling with the earthy aroma...

Journal Entry – September 20, 1871 I have not thought of that night in years—the night I stood at the edge of the black wood, invited...

Journal Entry – September 18, 1871 The evening draped Louisville in a hush of gray and violet, the kind of light that makes every alley...

Journal Entry – September 17, 1871 The dawn breaks sullen and gray, as though the heavens have grown weary of their own watchfulness....

Journal Entry – September 16, 1871 The morning sky is a pale sheet of pewter, a dull hush settling over the town like the final note of a...

Journal Entry – September 15th, 1871 The scent of iron shavings lingers in the damp spring air, a stark reminder of the labor that fuels...

September 14th 1871 Journal Entry – October 1, 1871 Somewhere West of Louisville I dreamed of the pit again. Not the one behind the...

Journal Entry – September 10, 1871 April 10, 1871 Today, the streets of Louisville seemed slick as the sky threatened to burst. Wagon...

October Approaches There’s a shift in the air tonight. You can taste it if you’re quiet long enough. The warmth is leaving the soil. The...

Journal Entry – April 9, 1871 **April 9, 1871** Today, the scent of iron shavings hung thick in the air, a pungent reminder of the...

Journal Entry – April 8, 1871 **Cincinnati, April 8, 1871** The wet hemp rope stings my palms as I thread it through the platforms of...

Journal Entry – April 7, 1871 April 7, 1871 The lantern glass rattles in the wind, an eerie echo of the solitude that cloaks this city...

Journal Entry – April 3, 1871 As dawn broke over the city, the river was cloaked in a thick fog, swirling around the towering steeples...

Journal Entry – April 2, 1871 As I wander through the bustling streets of Cincinnati, the air is thick with a palpable energy, a curious...

Journal Entry – April 9, 1871 Fate has a funny way of slowing us down just long enough to sharpen the blade. A tree had the nerve to...

Journal Entry – April 7, 1871 The train pulled out of Cincinnati at dawn, wheels grinding like teeth. I watched the river disappear...

Journal Entry – April 6, 1871 Cincinnati, Ohio The Ohio River was gray this morning. Wide, slow, and cold—like the eyes of every man...

Journal Entry – April 3, 1871 Somewhere between Boston and Hell They say a woman’s reputation travels faster than a telegram. If that’s...

They said she came from the Old World — that dark place across the sea where superstition lingered longer than law. Most agreed she was...